Radio-based asset-tracking systems are used in various enterprises, such as hospitals, moving and shipping companies, and other facilities with movable assets to track various assets to provide the enterprise or other party with knowledge of the location of the asset. The asset-tracking systems often use wireless tags that are connected to assets to help track the location of the asset. Installing the infrastructure to enable asset tracking is normally relatively expensive, and the asset tag typically has sufficient power to operate for a few months before its batteries are dead. The relatively short lifespan is due to several factors. One factor is that the tags are location-aware, which means they receive signals from infrastructure that are associated with particular locations, and the tags then have to report the location data back to an asset tracking system. The tags also normally use a two-way protocol, which includes sending a message and receiving an acknowledgement of receipt. Furthermore, the costs of the infrastructure for many conventional tracking systems, including RFID readers for passive RFID tags, can be prohibitively high to prospective users.
The need for an asset tag that has sufficient battery power to operate for the life of the asset, or a substantial portion of the life of the asset, is a critical factor in industries today. Having to replace a battery of an asset tag or replace the entirety of the asset tag is an expensive and often time-consuming process. Many assets will require tags with lifespans of many years. Additionally, it can be difficult to determine the optimal time for replacement of a battery of the asset tag, thereby leaving the user at the risk of the asset tag fully losing power and subsequently failing. Some low-power radios have been used to increase battery life, but these devices have shorter transmission range requiring the RF infrastructure to relay. When the assets being tracked are highly mobile, (e.g., cattle or international shipping containers), having an asset tag which no longer functions to track the asset is highly undesirable.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.